Hardware Slaves to the Master Algorithm

September 9, 2016 Nicole Hemsoth Over the long course of IT history, the burden has been on the software side to keep pace with rapid hardware advances—to exploit new capabilities and boldly go where no benchmarks have gone before. However, as we swiftly ride into a new age where machine learning and deep learning take the place of more static applications and software advances are far faster than chipmakers can tick and tock to, hardware device makers are scrambling. That problem is profound enough on its own, and is an entirely different architectural dance than general purpose device have ever had to step to. Shrinking dies and increasing reliability and speed are fine arts that have been mastered. But with the new algorithms that rise and take shape, merging and…